Fall Heat and Cold Diary… October 21-25, 2017

Wednesday October 25th… Dear Diary. Yesterday that heat dome did verify at a record 597+ decameters over California:

An equally strong looking upper low settled in over the Midwest. Here’s the catch in the world of climate science. The air mass underneath the upper low was not record cold in nature while that in the Southwest under the heat dome was. From month to month and year to year, and almost on a daily basis due to carbon pollution that “warm” team is beating the “cold” team in the statistics department. Here’s some more warm team padded stats from Tuesday and today:

According to NWS Los Angeles at first pitch in Tuesday at Dodgers Stadium the temperature was 103F…an all-time record for the start of a World Series game:

Today’s (Wednesday) records across Southern California were hot but not as toasty as those of Tuesday:

Here is a list of records set or tied today from NWS San Diego:

Here is a more complete list from the Los Angeles office from Thursday morning:

This post will be fluid since I’ll add more data as it crosses my radar.

The Climate Guy

Monday October 23rd… Dear Diary. Well it’s here, that much vaunted and well forecast western heat wave. The thing will peak on Tuesday and Wednesday then slowly diminish through the end of the week. Before it abates, though, many records will be set. The only question will be whether or not the combination of low humidity, high temperatures, high Santa Ana winds, and careless people will produce deadly conflagrations. These graphics are good reminders of what to do and not do during this period of record heat with a red flag warning:

As far as records go, this heat wave is starting to produce plenty for late October since widespread temperatures above 100 are now common in Southern California. Here is a preliminary report from NWS Los Angeles:

Yes you are correct Rob McGregor. Daily records are being beaten by 5-10 degrees.☺

Here are some records from NWS San Diego:

Well above average temperatures were common on Monday in California’s central valley. Red Bluff did set a record:

According to Brian Brettschnieder this reading at Fullerton was the warmest ever recorded so late in the year at a major U.S. reporting station (prior record 108 at Indio Fire Station, CA on 10/24/1959):

Ironically, the World Series will see its hottest start in recorded history. The temperature at first pitch tomorrow should be about 98F. Of course this is mainly due to a game being held in Los Angeles, but climate change is playing a big role here:

The heat isn’t confined to California. This wasn’t a record, but the stat did raise my eyebrows: